The present invention relates to a fiberoptic system for a mobile communication system and more particularly for a mobile communication in remote regions.
Generally, a mobile communication system allows radio data communication among mobile stations. FIG. 1 shows a mobile communication including a mobile switching center and one base station which provides a bi-directional communication service to a plurality of mobile stations by receiving and forwarding data from a mobile station to the mobile switching center or from the mobile switching center to a mobile station. The coverage of the base station to effectively serve a mobile station is determined by a transmission loss between a base station and a mobile station increases.
As the demand for mobile communication increased, a fiberoptic system was developed to enlarge the service coverage for a base station. Referring to FIG. 1, a fiberoptic system includes a master fiberoptic repeater connected to a slave fiberoptic repeater by a optical fiber cable. The slave fiberoptic repeater receives data from a mobile station and relays the data to the base station through the optical fiber cable. Likewise, the slave fiberoptic repeater receives data from a base station and transmits the data to a mobile staion. Thus, the fiberoptic system may effectively decreases the transmission loss between a base station and a mobile station.
Although the fiberoptic system somewhat enlarged the coverage of one base station to effectively transmit and receive radio frequency (RF) signals, in uninhabited and remote regions such as deep parts of mountains, rough valleys, or subterrains, the number of fiber optic systems which can be connected to one base station is limited by the reverse link noise floor. Such weak-converage regions are generally known as shadow regions. In order to solve the transmission problems, many base stations are being built above ground to cover the shadow regions. However, the cost of building and maintaining the base stations are becoming a big burden.
An object of the present invention is to solve at least the problems and disadvantages of the related art.
Particularly, an object of the present invention is to provide a fiberoptic system which can provide a high quality communication service in remote regions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fiberoptic system which extends the coverage of one base station of a mobile communication system with minimal cost.
Additional advantages, objects, an d features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the objects and in accordance with the purposes of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, one embodiment of the fiberoptic mobile communication system includes a plurality of slave fiberoptic repeaters for one base station and one combiner in the master fiberoptic repeater to combine the signals from the plurality of slave fiberoptic repeaters. In another embodiment of the fiberoptic mobile communication system, a plurality of combiners in the master fiberoptic repeater combine the signals from the plurality of slave fiberoptic repeaters.